Another Look Under the Hood...

2025 | 4 Beds | 4 Baths | 2,437 SF

When we published the first installment of this series, we weren’t sure how it would land. Turns out, a lot of people were hungry for something other than the usual song and dance—so here we are again.

This is the second edition of Here’s How Much We Built It For, and it’s a special one. Because this house? Few thought it could be saved.

The Red X

When we came across 34 Percy Street in the summer of 2022, it had a bright red “X” tacked to the front door by the Charleston Fire Department. That’s the city’s way of saying, “If this thing is ablaze, we're not stepping foot in there.” The floors were gone. The roof was open to the sky. An engineer’s report had already called for demolition.

So naturally we were like, "yeah, sounds awesome.".

Not because it made perfect financial sense on paper. Not because it was an obvious development play. But because it still had a spine—leaning, fractured, barely standing—but original, and unmistakably Charleston. We decided to place a bet that most wouldn’t, and then got to work proving it could hold.

The Preservation Society Weighed In

To their credit, the Preservation Society of Charleston stepped in early and advocated against demo. They saw what we saw: a surviving Charleston Single with original massing and material, sitting in one of the peninsula’s last viable working neighborhoods.

Denied for demolition by the BAR on the shoulders of preservation advocacy, we came in next.

What followed was two years of lifting, bracing, framing, designing, and digging. We installed underground utilities. We rebuilt the foundation. We added a pool and pool house in the back. And we elevated styling in a way that still respected the past. The bones stayed true, and the livability belongs to this century.

A New Standard for Infill Preservation

The final product is 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2,437 square feet, a pool, yard space and hardscape, ample parking — all on a 0.09-acre lot, inside a 140-year-old shell that had been vacant for at least 25 years. It appraised at $2.8 million in early 2025. But that’s not really the headline.

The real story is that it got done. That something this far gone won't be bulldozed. That a project like this could exist at the intersection of preservation and performance, design and discipline, neighborhood and nuance. This wasn’t about getting a fast return. This was about proving a point: Charleston doesn’t need more throwaway buildings. It needs more patient ones.

We’re proud of this one. And we’re proud to show you what it took.

👉 See the Full Numbers: Here’s How Much We Built It For – 34 Percy Street